Elgin Site Falls Under Shadow Of Motorola

Firm Outgrows Distribution Center In Schaumburg

July 20, 2000|By Maria T. Galo, Tribune Staff Writer.

Randy's Vegetables is a lush, green oasis in a desert of concrete on the northwest edge of Elgin. And the concrete that is the Northwest Corporate Park is about to expand with the addition of a Motorola distribution center the company is proposing for 30 acres just west of Randy's.

But far from fearing the demise of the long-standing vegetable stand, owner Randy Gaitsch embraces the development as a giant business opportunity, said his manager, Chris Chadderon.All those people working in the industrial park need to eat, and with luck they will eat Randy's zucchini, broccoli and green peppers.

"Hopefully, with all the new people, it's going to help us out a lot," Chadderon said.

The vegetable market's new opportunity is just the latest expansion for Motorola, a giant in the northwest suburbs' job market. Motorola is also negotiating a large expansion in Deer Park because the telecommunications company has simply outgrown its Schaumburg campus, a company spokeswoman said.

In Elgin, Motorola announced last week that it was proposing a , 300,000-square-foot distribution center on Galvin Drive for its wireless communications businesses. The proposal has the backing of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, which has pledged state tax breaks to Motorola to help develop the site. The proposal is expected to be presented to the Elgin City Council on Wednesday, city spokesman Clay Pearson said.

Once the distribution center is open, the 500 employees who work in Schaumburg will be transferred to the Elgin location, Motorola spokeswoman Fay Bergeman said.

The company also expects to add about 500 jobs the next five years, she said, mostly in Elgin.

To qualify for the state tax breaks, the company must create 500 jobs in the state in the next five years, said Brian Reardon, spokesman for the commerce and consumer affairs department. Failure to provide those new jobs could jeopardize the tax breaks.

"Motorola has a good reputation with the state," Reardon said. "They've always come through on job projections in the past, and there is no reason to think they wouldn't do that here."

In exchange, the state will allow Motorola to take a pass on paying state sales tax on material needed to build the distribution center, Reardon said. The company also will not have to pay the state utility tax for the center for 20 years. And for every employee added to Motorola's payroll at the Elgin site, Motorola gets a one-time $500 deduction from its corporate income tax, according to the Illinois Department of Revenue, as well as a tax break on its investment in the Elgin site.

The commerce and consumer affairs department has assisted companies with tax breaks since 1982 as an incentive for major corporations to stay in Illinois. Motorola employs more than 24,000 people in the state.

The company hopes to break ground at the Elgin site next month and open the center next spring, Bergeman said.

At Deer Park in Lake County, Motorola is negotiating to build an 880,000-square-foot research park on 62 acres north of Lake-Cook Road on the east edge of town.

On Monday, the Deer Park Village Board delayed a vote on the proposal until the board meeting on Aug. 21, Village President Richard Karl said.

The board asked for more information about traffic management and road improvements for Lake-Cook Road, as well as a more detailed explanation of how the buildings would look from Lake-Cook, Karl said.

Motorola is proposing a multimillion-dollar campus with two seven-story office buildings, a 40,000-square-foot support building and a multilevel garage, consolidating up to 2,800 Motorola employees who work in scattered rented sites around the north and northwest suburbs, Motorola spokesman Joe Arimond said. The Deer Park site has a wetland area that must be planned around, he said.

Motorola hopes to begin construction in Deer Park this August so it can open the park next year, and the request by the village will not delay the project, Arimond said.